


no time for getting old

by nymphori



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Beach Holidays, M/M, Mentions of Bokuto - Freeform, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 04:12:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7207313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nymphori/pseuds/nymphori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuroo signs him and Akaashi up for a sandcastle building competition and discovers that Akaashi has never built one before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	no time for getting old

"This is embarrassing," Akaashi glares at him but it isn't enough to make Kuroo take back his words.

"You don't get to leave me here."

Tetsurou is the one who saw the poster. Tetsurou is the one who signed the both of them up. Bokuto was meant to join in too but he preferred to earn free food in another way. _Earn_ , Bokuto's words, as if winning the beach volleyball tournament was something considered a given rather than a challenge. Tetsurou could have joined Bokuto, they both could have, but between jumping around under the hot sun on even hotter sand and sitting just above where the waves rush up the shore to build sandcastle it seemed an obvious choice. The don't have to move, they just have to sit or kneel and build and they can jump into the waves whenever it gets to be too much.

It seemed the obvious choice and Tetsurou totally blanked on thinking that there had been a lot more people around this last week. A lot more adults - real ones - and children and it's only now as he and Akaashi lean into pools dug into the sand that it has dawned on Tetsurou why.

Tetsurou groans and ducks down behind the one bucket of sand that's piled up. It's not a good hiding place, especially not when Akaashi knocks it down so that there's nothing hiding Tetsurou from the curious gazes pointed their way from the other teams building sandcastles, from the amused glances passed between all of the parents of the other teams.

"Akaashi, please, let's go, let's do something else. It's embarrassing!"

"Quit being a pain in the ass!" Akaashi dips the bucket into a pile of sand up turn it up over Tetsurou's head. He thinks it's pretty obvious who is really being the pain in the ass but he's not going to say anything. This is Akaashi being playful, he doesn't want to push Akaashi until he actually gets to the point of being frustrated and angry. "I'm going to go double check the poster and you get to work on the foundations!"

Akaashi almost struts up the beach in front of Tetsurou's eyes. He takes note that he's not the only one watching. The children spread around them seem intrigued, the parents are now much less so. He hopes they haven't heard them arguing. Akaashi has a mouth on him that at many times is not suitable for children. If he doesn't take the time to think through what he says his words are often unsuitable for a lot of people. Tetsurou is sure that's the only way Akaashi has managed to charm so many people in his life. A strict adherence to formalities and then as soon as he's comfortable all the barriers fall down. It's a contrast that makes Akaashi easy to read to matter what face he's wearing.

As such, Tetsurou knows that if he doesn't at least make it look like he's working hard while Akaashi is up at the hotel Akaashi really is going to get angry. He doesn't know what Akaashi will do then. Going off of Tetsurou's too many words of how embarrassing this morning has turned out to be, it will probably be something to embarrass him further. It's more than enough motivation to have Tetsurou running down to where the waves crash on hard sand to fill his bucket up with sand.

This is where the other teams are lucky. They're parents flutter around them and do most of the work. It's meant to be teams of two, but that doesn't matter if the task involves trekking sand up the beach or feeding snacks into their children. He and Akaashi have none of that. Only each other. Most times it's enough but Tetsurou would like to have someone running cold drinks and ice cream down to where he's spilling yet more sand into places sand was never meant to go. He'll have to have a long shower tonight.

"You haven't done anything," is the only warning Tetsurou gets that Akaashi has returned, "don't you want to win?"

"Of course, I do!" Although to be honest, it's only because he's competitive. He doesn't really care about the prize, which in contrast, is exactly the reason he had been able to convince Akaashi to join him in this venture.

"Good, I hope you know that win or lose I expect dinner."

"I'll buy it for you if we don't win," Tetsurou says almost automatically. It's only when Akaashi smiles down at him that Tetsurou really thinks about what he's said. He can't afford to buy Akaashi dinner. Not with the money he has with him. He could buy Akaashi something cheap from a stall along the shore or from the markets set up for all the tourists, but the buffet meal they are competing for is not something he can get for Akaashi.

"I'm going to hold you to that."

It's all Akaashi needs to say for Tetsurou to pick the bucket up once more and actually pack it with sand. "Did you- Did you find out anything about this thing?" He huffs out as he gets back up the beach. It turns out that when the bucket is packed completely with damp sand it's actually really heavy. If he has to run up and down the beach with it too many times he's going to wish he had joined Bokuto in beach volleyball instead.

"It says it's for children-"

"See, there's no point doing this, we should stop!"

"I wasn't finished yet." Tetsurou swallows the rest of his words, all of his complaints. The beach volleyball competition has already started but surely they aren't through the first round yet. He and Akaashi would make a good team, probably. They'd have to deal with Bokuto complaining that they ditched him and they would have to deal with playing against Bokuto but they could probably do well together. They usually work well together. They make a good team. Tetsurou nods his head for Akaashi to continue. "Nobody over twenty is allowed to compete."

"Over twenty?"

"So we're fine and we can get back to work." That's all there is to it. Akaashi pulls out a piece of paper from what appears to be thin air considering Tetsurou can't see any pockets and drops a clump of sand in one corner of the paper to hold it down. It's the design they made for what they are hoping will be their masterpiece. Akaashi isn't going to let them give up and it's his own fault. He signed them up, he bragged about how easy building something in the sand would be compared to running around. It's his own fault, and even Akaashi's late night searching the internet for pictures of sandcastles, built to perfection and looking more like special effects than something real that someone could build by hand hadn't turned him away from thinking it would be easy. "Where's a good place to start? I've never actually built a sandcastle before."

Tetsurou is meant to be carefully shaking out the bucket of sand to sit neatly in the plot they've been given. Once more it's destroyed. And this is a collection of sand he paid attention to for so long. Akaashi's words catch his attention and Tetsurou pushes the bucket to the side. Sand comes streaming out, over his legs, and Akaashi watches the whole thing play out with obvious amusement. "How come the kids up there can do it so much better than you can?"

"Practice probably," but that's not the real problem here. "You've never built a sandcastle before?" Akaashi shakes his head in answer, and in his eyes Tetsurou can hear the reprimand, _why would he say such a thing if it wasn't true?_ "What kind of childhood did you have where you didn't build sandcastles?"

Akaashi frowns, it's cute, innocent, the way he's offended by Tetsurou's words. "This trip is the first time I've ever been to the beach."

"You, take the bucket now, you can't have me building if it's your first time. You have to do it."

"I don't know how."

Tetsurou picks up the bucket himself and stands up, sending a cascade of sand down as he rises. It covers the paper Akaashi has placed in the sand and Tetsurou wants to laugh but refrains from it, just for now. He'll laugh again once Akaashi is too busy having fun to know that Tetsurou is laughing at him. All these grand plans, all the searching Akaashi had done last night to find extravagant sandcastles and he's never built a single one. It's definitely something to laugh at. Maybe with Bokuto later, because Akaashi's much more likely to reprimand Bokuto if it's all of them together. 

Tetsurou thinks back to all the sandcastles he made when he was the same age as the kids that surround them on the beach. Most of the time he just upended one bucket decorated it with shells and patterns drawn in with his fingers and that was it, building completed. If he had known Akaashi didn't know how to, he wouldn't have signed them up. That's a lie actually, if he had known he would have signed them up for it anyway. Akaashi had to experience building a sandcastle. Tetsurou actually feels happier now. It doesn't matter that it's almost a given, one hour in and nowhere close to having anything on their little plot of the beach, for them to lose the competition. If there's nothing close with regards the competition and where they place in it Akaashi can't realistically claim he deserves the buffet. Tetsurou can buy him some noodles they can traipse along the boardwalk and when the sun sets they can call it a night.

It's sounds like a good plan actually. They just need to get through the day first to get there.

"Here, follow me," Tetsurou sets off back down the beach to the sand that has been dampened by the waves less and less as the tide makes it's way further out. "You want the damp sand, it's hard, the soft sand higher up doesn't hold it's structure well." He starts packing sand with his hands into the bucket and it only takes a few handfuls for Akaashi to join him. They fill the bucket up and Tetsurou tamps it down. "You want to make sure it's dense too because otherwise it will just collapse." He doesn't help this time. He watches Akaashi's hands pack sand into the bucket and press it down, he watches Akaashi's face lined in concentration as he performs the task Tetsurou has set. He wants to laugh again, not because it's funny, it's just cute, how much attention Akaashi is paying to his words and to the project he wants to complete with what seems an even greater determination now that Tetsurou has insulted his childhood.

"All done? Let's go back." They use one hand each under the bucket to carry it up the beach and Tetsurou keeps it steady by its handle. "You want to be quick tipping it over so that you don't lose any sand." He demonstrates as he tips the bucket over himself, he's quick to look up and watch the information get stored in Akaashi's mind. Tetsurou forgets that he's a quick learner. Tetsurou only knows the basics but if Akaashi's been looking up instructions along with all of the pictures he looked at then they might actually have a chance at this now that he physically knows what is needed.

Realistically, Tetsurou casts his eyes along the other plots of sand marked out along the beach, it comes down to how much the parents are chipping in amongst the other teams. Because realistically, unless there is some amazing, once in a generation, sand artist amongst the kids then they shouldn't be losing the competition. Already he can see one kid who is piling more and more sand into a mountain while what is probably her sister digs a moat around it. A moat is a good idea actually. Tetsurou can't believe he's stealing ideas from someone who probably one has one digit to their age but it's something that wasn't in Akaashi's design but is easy enough to accomplish. It's Akaashi's first time, they have to do this much at least.

He taps the bottom of the bucket and carefully peels it away from the sand packed beneath it. "There we go, let's grab more." Akaashi races

Akaashi races down the sand to the water and collects the sand himself this time. Tetsurou watches him from where he's sat by their one little lump of a sandcastle. It's taken them so long to get this far. There's only another hour left but Tetsurou has a feeling that an hour isn't going to be all he has left.

Akaashi takes a couple more trips down the beach with sand and then they fight through the strong waves to pick up other things to decorate with. Tetsurou leaves the decorations up to Akaashi while he actually goes through with digging out a moat and using the bucket to fill it up with water. By the time they're done they have a moat, walls, and four turrets of a castle connected with seaweed bridge and adorned with seashell windows. It's much better than the sandcastles Tetsurou made as a kid and for Akaashi's first one it's actually impressive.

Akaashi fidgets with his fingers while the organisers walk around all the pieces that have been built. Eyes linger longer than necessary over where they stand and Tetsurou feels his body flush with shame. They're competing against kids. Families. This is a family event and here they are trying to break down what is possible some kids dream for some free food.

Luckily he doesn't have to fight his conscious for long. Akaashi giddily takes a green ribbon and they watch as further along two young boys are handed the elusive blue ribbon. Getting third is still an achievement in Tetsurou's books and the hotel will be happy that the parents will need to buy three extra meals if they plan on eating along with the kids for the night. 

It isn't the end, though. While many of the people building sandcastles jump onto them and pull them down Akaashi picks up the bucket and Tetsurou watches as he collects more wet sand to pile up around their castle. "For next year," he says to a question Tetsurou didn't answer. He doesn't know if they'll come back next year. He doesn't even know where they'll be next year. They might have summer jobs, they might have internships, they might be doing different things with different people. Tetsurou doesn't linger on the thought for too long, though. A stream of sand not so accidentally falls through his hair and he jumps up to help Akaashi improve upon their creation.

They work through the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon with breaks only to push each other under the flow of waves to cool down. It isn't until Bokuto rushes down the beach, too fast to slow down, and collides with hours and hours of sandcastle building that Tetsurou takes note of how long he and Akaashi have been down here with having anything to eat or drink. Bokuto's pout is enough to let Tetsurou know that he didn't win his competition either but at least Tetsurou hasn't promised to buy him dinner.

Another reason to leave now. If they have snacks before one of them decides it's time to eat some real food then hopefully Akaashi won't need as much to eat.


End file.
